Best questions for citizen survey about traffic congestion

Here are some of the best questions for a citizen survey about traffic congestion, plus tips on building surveys that collect meaningful insights. If you want to generate such a survey in seconds, you can use Specific to build a tailored, conversational survey powered by AI.

What are the best open-ended questions for citizen survey about traffic congestion?

Open-ended questions are essential for understanding how people genuinely feel about traffic congestion. These questions let citizens share experiences, frustrations, and ideas you might not even think to ask about. They’re especially useful at the start of a survey—or whenever you want to learn the “why” behind opinions.

• Benefits of open-ended questions:

  • Reveal context and new insights—for example, the actual impact of lost hours in traffic goes well beyond inconvenience. In Seattle, citizens lost an average of 63 hours to traffic in 2024—a figure that’s up 9% from just a year ago. These kinds of numbers only tell part of the story; what’s it really like to live this reality? [1]

  • Highlight emotional or health impacts not captured by simple data points.

  • Help surface actionable solutions from the people experiencing congestion daily.

Here are the 10 best open-ended questions for a citizen survey about traffic congestion:

1. How does traffic congestion affect your daily routine or commute?

2. What are the biggest challenges you experience because of traffic jams in your area?

3. Can you describe a recent situation where traffic congestion impacted your plans or mood?

4. Have you noticed any changes in your health or stress levels that you attribute to traffic congestion?

5. How do you adapt your travel habits to cope with traffic congestion?

6. What do you think are the root causes of traffic congestion in your city or neighborhood?

7. In what ways has traffic congestion influenced your participation in social or community activities?

8. Which time of day or week do you find traffic is at its worst for you, and why?

9. What solutions or changes would you propose to improve traffic flow where you live?

10. Is there anything else about your experience with traffic congestion you’d like to share?

What are the best single-select multiple-choice questions for citizen survey about traffic congestion?

Single-select multiple-choice questions help you quantify experiences and opinions. They’re perfect for quick insights and making it easier for citizens to respond—sometimes, people don’t want to write out full answers, especially on a mobile device. These questions also help spark conversation and can deepen engagement when paired with effective follow-ups.

Question: How often do you experience significant traffic congestion in your daily commute?

• Every day

• Several times a week

• Occasionally

• Rarely

• Never

Question: Which aspect of traffic congestion bothers you the most?

• Time lost

• Increased fuel costs

• Health or stress

• Reduced social activities

• Other

Question: What is your primary mode of transportation during peak traffic times?

• Personal car

• Public transit

• Cycling or walking

• Rideshare services

• Other

When to followup with "why?" Ask “why?” whenever you want to understand the motivations or reasoning behind someone’s choice. For example, if most respondents pick “Health or stress” as their top concern, asking “Why does traffic stress you out?” can uncover specific pain points, like poor air quality or the unpredictability of commute times, both of which have well-documented health effects. [3]

When and why to add the "Other" choice? The “Other” option is essential when you suspect you haven’t covered every possible answer. Follow-ups on “Other” often surprise you with new perspectives—like a citizen flagging that congestion prevents them from attending medical appointments, a social cost that’s not immediately obvious. These insights can directly drive policy or infrastructure action.

NPS question for citizen survey about traffic congestion

NPS (Net Promoter Score) is a simple metric that measures how likely someone is to recommend a city or area based on their experience, such as with traffic congestion. For traffic surveys, you could ask: “On a scale from 0 to 10, how likely are you to recommend living in your city/town to a friend based on your experience with traffic congestion?” The follow-ups are particularly enlightening—for detractors, ask what would need to change; for promoters, ask what works well or why congestion isn’t an issue for them.

The NPS framework is helpful for traffic because it connects urban satisfaction to direct lived experiences. For example, in Dhaka, traffic congestion is estimated to cost 3.5% of the country’s GDP due to lost productivity and time. [2] If people start deterring their friends from moving to a city because of congestion, it’s a signal policymakers can’t ignore. Try building an NPS survey using this NPS survey generator.

The power of follow-up questions

Follow-up questions are where surveys go from collecting shallow data to generating real understanding. Automated follow-up questions, especially those powered by AI (see the auto-followup how-to), are game changers. When someone answers vaguely or with little detail, Specific’s AI follow-ups can instantly clarify in a way that not only saves time for administrators, but also keeps the experience conversational and engaging.

• Citizen: “Traffic is mostly okay except rush hour.”

• AI follow-up: “Can you describe what makes rush hour difficult for you?”

This real-time probing reveals details you’d otherwise lose—and lets you see, for instance, that for some, rush hour is more about inconsistent bus schedules than sheer time lost.

How many followups to ask? Usually, 2–3 follow-ups per question is plenty. The goal is clarity, not interrogation. With Specific, you can configure when to move on once you have the depth of answer you need—ensuring the survey feels respectful and responsive.

This makes it a conversational survey. Instead of traditional forms, dynamic followups turn each survey into an engaging, natural conversation—leading to richer, more honest feedback.

Easy AI-powered analysis For those worried about managing all this qualitative data, don’t be. With tools like Specific’s AI survey analysis, summarizing and theming open-text responses is handled automatically, no matter how many people take your survey. Large volumes of text become manageable and actionable instantly.

Automated followups are new—if you haven’t experienced them, try the generator, and see how much depth you can get from a single answer!

How to compose a prompt for ChatGPT or other GPTs to come up with great questions

If you prefer to brainstorm your own questions using AI tools like ChatGPT, here’s how to prompt effectively. Start simple, and add more context as you iterate:

Basic prompt:

Suggest 10 open-ended questions for citizen survey about traffic congestion.

You’ll always get better results if you offer more context. For instance, tell the AI why you’re running the survey, who the citizens are, and what you hope to learn:

I am conducting a survey for citizens in a large urban area to understand how traffic congestion affects their daily lives, health, and participation in the community. Suggest 10 open-ended questions to uncover both challenges and possible solutions.

After collecting those questions, ask the AI to organize or refine them:

Look at the questions and categorize them. Output categories with the questions under them.

Then, drill down on specific areas. For example, if categories include “commute challenges” and “health impacts,” you can prompt:

Generate 10 questions for categories commute challenges, health impacts.

What is a conversational survey?

A conversational survey mimics a natural back-and-forth conversation, instead of hitting citizens with rigid forms. The AI delivers questions, smartly follows up based on previous answers, and clarifies responses—all in real time. It feels like chatting with someone who genuinely wants to understand your perspective.

This stands in sharp contrast to traditional/manual survey creation, where you have to worry about question logic, writing follow-up queries, manually compiling and analyzing open-ended responses, and often lose nuance in data entry. With a conversational AI survey maker, you design the intent, the AI structures and adapts the whole flow, and you instantly get more useful feedback.

Why use AI for citizen surveys? Traffic congestion is complex, affecting health, productivity, and community life in ways that don’t always surface in standardized forms. AI surveys give you a richer, more contextualized understanding with less work—and can even handle language differences or unusual answers automatically, as explained in our AI survey generator guide. If you want to see how easy it is to start, check out this how-to guide for citizen traffic surveys.

Specific is trusted for its best-in-class user experience in conversational surveys. It makes collecting feedback fun, fast, and impactful for everyone.

See this traffic congestion survey example now

Take the next step: see a traffic congestion citizen survey example that uncovers deeper insights through conversational AI, smart follow-ups, and instant analysis—so you can understand and act on what truly matters.